Electric Bill/Link Love

Dee at Color Me Frugal was talking about how they were Flushing Money Down the Toilet- Literally in her latest post. It got me thinking about one bill that has been steadily increasing lately, and I’m not liking it…but there’s a reason why.

My electric bill used to run about $23-$27 a couple years ago. This was before I got a MAC tower and bigger monitor so it would be easier to do my video editing work. Well that bumped my bill up to around $35. OK, still manageable, especially since a couple years ago my landlord took over the gas bill, which ran about $22-$48 per month depending if I was running the gas heat.

Now my electric bill is crawling closer to $50 per month for one silly reason: I don’t turn off my MAC tower and unplug it from the wall at night like I used to. Why? Because when I’ve done that in the last month, I’ve had major problems rebooting the computer. I spend a good 20 minutes wanting to rip my hair out…and that’s just not a good way to start the morning.

This computer and monitor is fairly old because it was given to me at a VERY cheap price by my producer, and he even did a complete reinstall on it, so why it acts up when you restart it is beyond me. All I know is it’s a frustrating process.

So what would you do? Would you go through that headache to save around $8ish dollars per month?

Ahh, New Zealand. We now have gas water and cooking so our electric is just for appliances, but that’s still $35-50 and that’s CHEAP!

But I wouldnt sweat it over 8 bucks a month. That’s $2 a week – not even a coffee.

Color Me Frugal

Thanks for the mention Tonya! On your MAC- have you tried calling the company to see if they have any thoughts or suggestions for you on the issue? At least they might be able to give you some answers, even if they don’t have any fixes for it.

I would leave it plugged in for sure! Time is money and I would get SO frustrated if it took 20 minutes to get my computer rebooted. Hope you have a great weekend!

CanadianBudgetBinder

That’s a tough call, although like DC I’d keep it plugged in or I’d just get too frustrated every day. I’d likely save up and buy a new computer or see if I could get the current one sorted out. Best of luck mate.

Thanks for the link love Tonya! I’d leave the computer plugged in and on, it sounds like its worth the extra money. Does it do the same thing if you put it in sleep mode?

Kali @ Common Sense Millennial

20 minutes out of your work day (especially when it’s a frustrating 20 minutes!) is pretty significant – especially when you consider that extra $8 per month breaks down to about 27 cents per day. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If it keeps going up, maybe you can start searching for other energy wasters instead and let the Mac slide?

I’m all about unplugging things that aren’t in use or putting them in a surge protector and then just flipping the off switch or unplugging that. 20 minutes of frustration PER DAY might be worth $8 a month a month though. Thanks so much for the link love, Tonya! Hope you have a great weekend.

I’d leave it plugged in, mainly because I’m impatient and I’d be afraid it wouldn’t boot up properly one day. Our gas bill went from $44 to $168 in a month, we only have it for heat, and keep the house at a (still chilly) 68. Utility jumps suck.

Done by Forty

That’s a tricky one because the dollar amount is small enough to not worry about, but it’d obviously be nice to eliminate the waste, too. I guess I’d probably leave it plugged in but try to minimize the electricity use (e.g. – put it on hibernate/sleep mode?) or try to ‘get back’ those savings elsewhere by unplugging other items.

Travis Pizel

I’d be interested in going around and turning off / unplugging everything each night and see how much that saves us in our electric costs. Unfortunately I don’t know if it would ever be an apples to apples comparison because the weather varies so much in MN from month to month that my electric bill is hardly ever the same two months in a row. thanks for the shoutout, friend…..keep pounding that asphalt (or sand)!

Leslie Beslie

I would keep it running, too but try to decrease your use of other appliances. I did try the unplugging thing but after talking to a friend who’s an EE, decided that it’s only useful for more powerful items like my audio receiver. It wouldn’t make a difference to unplug lights/fans/etc. I don’t have a microwave or toast oven so I don’t have to worry about those energy-sucking appliances.

I’d keep it plugged in. But I tend to be a bit impatient so I’m willing to pay a little extra to avoid starting my day with my eye twitching and me pulling out my hair. 🙂 Plus, you use your computer for work, not just to cruise the internet, so that 20 minutes costs you money. Have a great weekend, Tonya!

For me, $8/month is so not worth stressing out for 20 minutes every single morning. That’s about 10 hours of stress every month! For $8! Why?!?

That said, if you have a friend who’s computer savvy with this stuff, it might be worth having them see if they can give you some hints of how to troubleshoot. The last thing you want is it to die unexpectedly…. oh yeah… and backups!

I can’t believe you wrote about your electricity going up. I was shocked to find out that my December bill was the highest EVER $100!! But, it was freaking cold in Denver and I have electric heat. When I pay $14 in August it will balance out.

Kim@Eyesonthedollar

I’d leave it plugged in. I used to be religious about unplugging, but it takes so dang long to get everything going and sometimes I’d have to enter the passwords for things like the Roku, which was annoying. I’d pay $8 a month not to be annoyed.

Holly Johnson

I’ve had similar problems with my computer. When I do turn it off, it is very time consuming to reboot it. I still do it sometimes but it’s usually easier just to keep the darn thing on. =/

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